Tips To Remember When Dog Training

If pets could speak, dog training would be much easier. While many pets seem to have an uncanny way of understanding their owners and communicating their needs, training them, especially in the early stages, means understanding how your actions can be interpreted, or misinterpreted, by them.

It means learning to see the world how our pets might see it and adjusting our thinking and training to suit. Here are a few tips to remember throughout all your dog training:

Start Early – When we get a new pet, whether it’s a puppy or full-grown, we all tend to be happy and excited with the new addition to the household and we sometimes let things go for a while.

Not only will your pet not learn the right way to behave, it will be more difficult to train them properly.

Understand Your Pet – Dogs are pack animals and their instinct is to play their role in the pack the best way they can. Pack life has certain “rules”, including that there must always be a leader. If your dog does not clearly see you as the leader of the pack, then he or she will instinctively try to assume that leadership.

A lot of dog misbehaviour is based on confusion over the perceived role your dog has in the “pack”. For example, barking is often a sign that your dog believes he or she is leader and they are trying to exert the control that they rightly believe a leader should have.

Establish An Ongoing Relationship – Too often we focus on housebreaking and a few tricks in training our pets. Dog training is really an ongoing relationship you have with your pet throughout its life. Your dog in naturally programmed to try to please you, the leader of the pack and the more they feel that they are playing their role well, the happier they are. Focusing on an ongoing relationship with your dog, instead of training only in the beginning, will result in happier, better behaved pet.

Professional Pet Training

As it will be critically important to properly train your pet at a very early age, you may wish to consider the services of a professional dog obedience instructor.

At Alpha Paws, our trainers specialize in several dog obedience training programs as well as puppy housebreaking training, and as a result, we can provide the type of session that is right for both your needs and those of your dog:

Puppy Pre-School – Early training to set the right tone and direction for your puppy

Board-and-Train – Your dog stays with us for an extensive 5-day or 10-day program

Drop-Off Program – Like Board-and-Train, except your dog does not stay overnight

For the utmost in professional dog obedience training classes within Toronto, call Alpha Paws today at 905-830-9500 or 1-647-694-4584 or contact us to request a free assessment of your dog’s training needs.